Terminal to execute a terminal application

ABSTRACT

A terminal for use in a communication network having several terminal capability functions for realizing a multitude of terminal capability features. A terminal application execution apparatus is coupled to the terminal capability functions to interact with the terminal capability functions and to execute thereby a terminal application. The terminal includes at least one terminal capability server coupled between the terminal application execution apparatus and to the terminal capability functions. The terminal capability server translates a first application signal received from at least one of the terminal capability functions into a first predefined application open signal and provides the translated signal to the terminal application execution apparatus. The terminal capability server translates a second predefined application open signal received from the terminal application execution apparatus into a second application signal and provides the translated signal to at least one of the terminal capability functions.

This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/468,227 filed Dec. 20,1999; now U.S. Pat. No. 6,456,857, the disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a terminal for use in a communicationnetwork and comprising a plurality of terminal capability functions torealize a plurality of terminal capability features and coupled theretoa terminal application execution apparatus to interact with one or moreof the plurality of terminal capability functions and to execute therebya terminal application, the terminal application to be executed by sucha terminal, a carrier of such a terminal application, a method realizedby such a terminal, and a communication network comprising such aterminal.

Such a terminal with terminal capabilities and terminal applicationsmeans coupled thereto to interact with the terminal capabilities and toexecute thereby a terminal application is especially known incommunication networks referred as a Universal Mobile TelecommunicationSystems UMTS. For such an UMTS network the concept of Virtual Homeenvironment is defined. A Virtual home environment is defined as aconcept for personal service environment portability across networkboundaries and between terminals. The concept of the Virtual Homeenvironment is such that users are consistently presented with the samepersonalized features, User Interface customization and services inwhatever network and whatever kind of terminal, wherever the user may belocated. The Virtual Home Environment is seen as a key mechanism forconvergence of fixed and mobile terminals, for public and privatenetworks and operators and for telecommunication and data communicationsystems.

A terminal, either fixed terminal or mobile terminal, for use in such avirtual home environment comprises terminal capability means where forhere below a non-exhaustive list of examples is provided:

a Wireless Application Protocol WAP client that communicates via a WAPgateway with a WEB server in the Internet or other terminals. WAPspecifies an application framework and network protocols for wirelessdevices such as mobile phones, pagers and personal digital assistants.The network protocols specify a way of transporting data between anInternet Protocol IP network and mobile terminals. The applicationframework enables the creation of Internet like services; and

a Wireless Telephone Application WTA client that communicates with a WTAserver in the network. WTA specifies an application framework thatextends the WAP architecture with telephony services. It is a collectionof telephony specific extension for call and feature control mechanismsthat make advanced Mobile Network Services available to users. Incontrast with classical client-server architecture e.g. WAP where theclient continuously communicates with the server for the execution ofthe services actually running on the server, WTA adopts a terminalcentric approach. WTA services run in the WTA client on the mobileterminal, which only communicates with the WTA server for maintenanceand reconfiguration reasons; and

a Java execution environment such as e.g. a Java card. A JavaCard is arecent evolution in the area of smart-cards with an enhancedarchitecture that has a Java Card Virtual Machine JCVM on top of itsnative Operating System OS and allows to develop applications written inJava programming language; and

a User Service Identity Module USIM module that comprises e.g. anauthentication algorithm and a ciphering key, a card identification, auser identification, network and service related data and UMTS SIMapplications i.e. USIM applications; and

a SIM Application Tool-kit provides mechanisms which allow applicationsthat exist on the USIM to interact and to operate with any part of themobile equipment of a mobile terminal.

It has to be remarked that according to the virtual home environmentdefinitions a User Service Identity Module that identifies a user can becomprised in as well a fixed terminal as a mobile terminal. Such a USIMcard comprises terminal capability means but might as well compriseterminal applications means with a terminal application.

The above mentioned terminal capabilities are realizing terminalcapability features whilst being supported by terminal bearers such ase.g. short message service SMS, circuit switched data and Generic PacketRadio Service. It has to be mentioned that a particular manufacturerdevelops these terminal capability features and terminal bearers. Inthis way the terminal capability features and terminal bearers aretechnology dependent according to the choices of a manufacturer.

The known kind of terminals further comprises a terminal applicationmeans to interact with one or more of the terminal capabilities in orderto execute a terminal application.

A terminal application provides to a user of a terminal a particularservice such as e.g. ‘a call forwarding application according to theuser's preferences’ or ‘a voice message application’ or ‘personalbanking applications’, etc. It has to be remarked that such a terminalapplication is a hardware module or, more commons, a software module.Such a software module terminal application is information e.g. logicand data that can be stored at production time on e.g. a read onlymemory of the terminal, but on the other hand, it might as well bedownloaded from a service provider in the telecommunication network one.g. an accessible memory of the terminal during operational use of theterminal. It has to be remarked that such a terminal application isusual designed according to a higher programming language level.

A terminal application means comprises at least part of the dataconcerning the present application and an application executionenvironment. In this way the execution environment, under the support ofthe associated terminal capability means, executes the data of theapplication e.g. a WAP application means executes a particular WAPapplication by interacting with the associated WAP client.

It has to be remarked here that since the terminal capability means istechnology dependent according to a certain manufacturer, that also therelated application is developed towards this technology of thismanufacturer. Indeed, in order to be executed by the terminalapplication means that interacts with the terminal capability means theterminal application must be designed according to the same interfaces.This means that an application signal that is transmitted by theterminal capability means is received and understood by the terminalapplication means that executes an application being developed accordingto the same manufacturer preferences as the one used for the terminalcapability means, and vice versa.

A problem outstanding with such kind of terminals is that in the eventwhen a third party service provider develops a terminal application foruse on a terminal, that the application must be written for differentunderlying technologies preferred and used by different manufacturers ofterminals. Indeed, a terminal application developed according topreferences of a first manufacturer is not able to cooperate via theterminal application means with a terminal capability means beingdeveloped according to preferences of a second manufacturer.

Furthermore, two different terminal applications applied on a sameterminal are not able to interact with each other when being designedfor different kind of terminal capability means.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the invention is to provide a terminal for use in acommunication network that executes a terminal application such as theabove known terminal but which has not the above mentioned drawback ofthe requirement of development of different terminal application designsfor execution of a this terminal application by interacting withdifferent terminal capability means of possible different manufacturer'sunderlying technology.

This is realized by a terminal (T) for use in a communication network,said terminal (T) comprising a plurality of terminal capability means(CAP1, CAP2, CAP3, CAP4) to realize a plurality of terminal capabilityfeatures and coupled thereto a terminal application means (APP1; APP2;APP3; APP4) to interact with one or more of said plurality of terminalcapability means (CAP1, CAP2, CAP3, CAP4) and to execute thereby aterminal application (app1; app2; app3; app4), wherein the terminal (T)further comprises at least one terminal capability server means (CS)coupled between said terminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4)and to at least one of said plurality of terminal capability means(CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4), said terminal capability server means (CS)being adapted to translate a first application signal (S1) received fromsaid at least one of said plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1;CAP2; CAP3; CAP4) into a first predefined application open signal (SO1)and to provide said first predefined application open signal (SO1) tosaid terminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4) and also beingadapted to translate a second predefined application open signal (SO2)received from said terminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4)into a second application signal (S2) and to provide said secondapplication signal (S2) to said at least one of said plurality ofterminal capability means (CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4), said firstpredefined application open signal (SO1) and said second predefinedapplication open signal (SO2) being independent of an underlyingtechnology of said plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1; CAP2;CAP3; CAP4).

The invention is further directed to a terminal application (app1; app2;app3; app4) to be executed by a terminal application means (APP1; APP2;APP3; APP4) of a terminal (T) as described above, wherein the terminalapplication (app1; app2; app3; app4) is adapted to be executed accordingto received and transmitted open signals (SO1, SO2, . . . ) similar toany one of said first predefined application open signal (SO1) and saidsecond predefined application open signal (SO2) and being independent ofan underlying terminal technology of said plurality of terminalcapability means (CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4).

The invention is further directed to a carrier for a terminalapplication (app1; app2; app3; app4), wherein the carrier is adapted tocarry a terminal application (app1; app2; app3; app4) as describedabove.

The invention is still further directed to a method to execute aterminal application (app1; app2; app3; app4) by a terminal (T)comprising the step of realizing a plurality of terminal capabilityfeatures by a plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1, CAP2, CAP3,CAP4), and interacting by a terminal application means (APP1; APP2;APP3; APP4) with at least one of said plurality of terminal capabilitymeans (CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4), and thereby executing by said terminalapplication means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4) a terminal application (app1;app2; app3; app4), wherein the method further comprises the steps of, byat least one terminal capability server means (CS):

translating a first application signal (S1) received from said at leastone of said plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1; CAP2; CAP3;CAP4) into a first predefined application open signal (SO1),

providing said first predefined application open signal (SO1) to saidterminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4), and

translating a second predefined application open signal (SO2) receivedfrom said terminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4) into asecond application signal (S2),

providing said second application signal (S2) to said at least one ofsaid plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4);and

said first predefined application open signal (SO1) and said secondpredefined application open signal (SO2) being independent of anunderlying technology of said plurality of terminal capability means(CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4).

Finally, the invention is directed to a communications networkcomprising at least one of a terminal (T), a terminal application (app1;app2; app3; app4) and a carrier, all as described above.

A further advantage of such kind of approach is the fact that oneterminal application that is executed by a terminal application meanscan interact with different terminal capability means being developedwith different underlying technologies such as e.g. a particular WAPapplication that interacts with a WAP client that is developed by onemanufacturer and with another kind of terminal capability means such asa WTA client being developed by another manufacturer.

It has to be explained that the carrier described above can be realizedby the terminal itself e.g. a memory element at the terminal applicationmeans, or by a third party service provider in order to be downloaded bya user or by a physical link between one of the network elements whene.g. being downloaded or just being transported.

A further feature, is that the first predefined open signal and thesecond predefined open signal are defined in correspondence toinformation of a predefined network open service architecture interface.This will become more clear in the following paragraph.

Such predefined network open service architecture interface is e.g.described by the third Generation Partnership Project, TechnicalSpecification Group Services and System Aspects, Virtual Homeenvironment/Open Service Architecture with reference 3G TS 23.127version 1.0.0 and available for the public at by 650 Route desLucioles—Sophia Antipolis, Valbonne—France and via the World Wide Web athttp://www.3gpp.org and in October, 1999. This document describes anOpen Service Architecture. It is mentioned that the Open ServiceArchitecture OSA defines an architecture that enables operator and thirdparty applications to make use of network functionality through an openstandardized interface i.e. the OSA Interface. Open Service Architectureprovides the glue between applications and service capabilities providedby the network. In this way applications become independent from theunderlying network technology. The applications constitute the top levelof the Open Service Architecture OSA. This level is connected to theService Capability Servers via the Open Service Architecture interface.The Service Capability Servers map the Open Service Architectureinterface onto the underlying telecom specific protocols and aretherefore hiding the network complexity from the applications.

Applications can be network/server centric applications or terminalcentric applications. Terminal centric applications reside in theterminal e.g. a Subscriber Identity Module SIM application toolkitapplication called shortly SAT application. Network/server centricapplications are outside the core network and make use of servicecapability features offered through the Open Service Architecture. Ithas to be remarked that applications may belong to the network operatordomain although running outside the core network. Outside the corenetwork means that the applications are executed in Applications Serversthat are physically separated from the network entities.

A third party service provider is with such an predefined network openservice architecture enabled to write once a network application thatmakes use of network functionality according to an network independentway. Such a network application is e.g. a call conference application ona call conference application server as e.g. described in theabove-mentioned document in Chapter 9, Annex—Example of use of GSA(informative). Herein, a user A desires to have a call conference with auser B and a user C. The network application requests the Camel ServiceCapability Server to set up a call according to the call forwardingpreferences of user A. The call conference service settings of user Aare known by e.g. interacting via the terminal of user A that comprisesterminal capability means which are developed by differentmanufacturers. In this way, the third party service provider still needsto write different applications towards these different underlyingtechnologies of different terminals. According to the example, theprocedure of the call set up is ordered via a WAP communication. ThisWAP communication can be implemented by a WAP terminal application thatinteracts with a WAP client on the terminal of user A i.e. a terminalcapability means of the terminal that communicates with a WAP server inthe network. The WAP terminal application asks for instance via theterminal display to the user the different call conference parties uponwhich user A enters e.g. the user identification numbers of user B anduser C and itself. The WAP terminal application is executed on the WAPterminal application means by interacting with the WAP terminalcapability means, which is technology dependent. The present inventionbrings an improvement to such kind of service network applications whichinteract also with terminals by comprising the terminal capabilityserver means CS in the terminal to translate the technology dependentapplication signals into technology independent open applicationsignals. However, by defining the predefined application open signals incorrespondence to information of such a predefined network open servicearchitecture interface the flexibility towards the third party serviceproviders is further improved. Indeed, since the network application isprovided here by a third service provider, it is preferred that the userA takes contact, not with its home service provider of its home network,but directly with the service provider that the service provides.Therefor the application at the terminal of user A needs to know e.g.the identification information of this third party service providerwhich is defined according to the predefined network open servicearchitecture. This is realized by a terminal as described above, whereinthe first predefined application open signal (SO1) and second predefinedapplication open signal (SO2) are defined in correspondence to apredefined network open service architecture interface information, andwherein the terminal application (app1; app2; app3; app4) comprises datain correspondence to the predefined network open service architectureinterface. It has to be remarked that the above mentioned identificationinformation is only cited as an example, and that the information of thepresent invention, in correspondence to a predefined network openservice architecture interface, is not limited to only identificationinformation of a third party service provider.

A final feature of he present invention is the fact that not only theinterchanged signals between a terminal application means and a terminalcapability means are terminal technology independent or are comprisinginformation in accordance to a predefined network open servicearchitecture interface information. It is also preferable that differentterminal capability means are adapted to interact, either directly orindirectly via a terminal capability server means, according topredefined independent application open signals or according to signalscomprising information of predefined network open service architecture.It has to be explained that as an example a SIM Application Tool-kitgenerates commands for the USIM of e.g. a mobile terminal, towards otherparts of the mobile equipment. According to the present invention, sucha command can comprise an identification reference of a terminalapplication on a terminal application means or an identificationreference of a third party service provider in order to initiate e.g. ashort message towards this third party service provider.

It should be noticed that the term ‘comprising’, used in the claims,should not be interpreted as being limitative to the means listedthereafter. Thus, the scope of the expression ‘a device comprising A andB’ should not be limited to devices consisting only of components A andB. It means that with respect to the present invention, the onlyrelevant components of the device are A and B.

Similarly, it is to be noted that the term ‘coupled’, also used in theclaims, should not be interpreted as being limitative to directconnections only. Thus, the scope of the expression ‘a device A coupledto a device B’ should not be limited to devices or systems wherein anoutput of device A is directly connected to an input of device B. Itmeans that there exists a path between an output of A and an input of Bwhich may be a path including other devices or means.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The above and other objects and features of the invention will becomemore apparent and the invention itself will be best understood byreferring to the following description of an embodiment taken inconjunction with the accompanying FIGURE that represents atelecommunication network in a virtual environment that comprises aterminal according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to the FIGURE, the working of the terminal in accordance withthe other network elements will be the working of the terminal inaccordance with the other network elements will be explained by means ofa functional description of the functional blocks shown therein. Basedon this description, implementation of the functional blocks will beobvious to a person skilled in the art and will therefore not bedescribed in detail. In additional, the principle working of theterminal regarding the invention will be described in further detail bymeans of three principle examples.

The communication network comprises a terminal T, a third party serviceprovider 3rdSP and a visited mobile network VN. For this particularembodiment it is preferred to choose a mobile terminal. However, it hasto be explained that the scope of the invention is not limited to mobileterminals and might be as well a fixed terminal. In order to explain thepresent invention by means of an example that is described in a laterparagraph wherein the terminal is located in a visited i.e. not its homemobile network, a limited number of functional blocks of this visitedmobile network will be shortly described.

The mobile network comprises, according to the definitions of thenetwork open service architecture of the above mentioned document of3GPP a service capability server SCS; a Customized Application forMobile Network enhanced Logic Camel CML i.e. the required functionalityto provide a mobile network a service of an intelligent network; a shortmessage server SMS and a mobile switching center MSC. The servicecapability server SCS comprises a Camel service capability serverCML-SCS on top of the Camel CML and a short message service capabilityserver SMS-SCS on top of the short message server SMS.

It has to be remarked that these network elements are only mentioned inorder to better explain the advantages of the present invention and thattherefor these functional blocks are not described in further detail.

The terminal comprises four terminal capabilities CAP1, CAP 2, CAP3 andCAP4, four terminal application means APP1, APP2, APP3 and APP4 withfour terminal applications app1, app2, app3 and app4, and one capabilityserver CS.

It has to be understood that the applications app1, app2, app3 and app4,which are to be executed by the terminal application means, APP1, APP2,APP3 and APP4 are at least partly stored at the terminal applicationmeans, APP1, APP2, APP3 and APP4. How and when the applications arestored or eventual downloaded from the network goes beyond the scope ofthe invention. The aim is the fact that the logic and data, shortlycalled data information, concerning the execution of the applications isat least partly present at the application means and that this datainformation is to be used by the application means in order to provide aservice to the user of the mobile terminal.

The terminal T comprises terminal equipment TE and an USIM.

The terminal equipment TE comprises as well terminal capabilities asterminal application means i.e. the terminal capabilities CAP1, CAP2,CAP4 and the terminal application means APP1 and APP2. The terminalequipment TE further comprises e.g. basic equipment of the mobileterminal to execute basic functionality for the mobile terminal such ase.g. setting up a communication.

The USIM is comprised to identify the user of the terminal and topersonalize the terminal to this user. Furthermore by inserting the USIMin this terminal T the user informs the communication network the factthat he desires to communicate via this mobile terminal. The USIMcomprises as well terminal capabilities CAP3 and CAP4 as two terminalapplication means APP3 and APP4.

It has to be remarked that in this way the terminal capabilities CAP4 iscomprised in the USIM an in the terminal equipment TE. This will becomemore clear in a further paragraph wherein the terminal capabilities CAPis implemented with a SAT which indeed partly covers both functionalblocks.

The four capabilities CAP2, CAP2, CAP3 and CAP4 are coupled via thecapability server CS to one or more of the terminal application meansAPP1, APP2, APP3 and APP4. In this way APP2 is coupled via thecapability server CS to capability CAP1 and capability CAP2.

It has to be remarked that the terminal capability server CS ispreferred to be a centralized capability server. However, the terminalcapability server CS can be distributed in the terminal towards thedifferent terminal capabilities. In this way capability CAP 1 could haveits own capability server and also capability CAP2 could have its owncapability server. Furthermore, these two dedicated capability serverscould on their turn be coupled to a centralized terminal capabilityserver (not shown).

The terminal capability server CS is comprised to translate technologydependent application signals e.g. S1 received from one of the terminalcapabilities CAP1, CAP2, CAP3 and CAP4 into technology independent openapplication signals e.g. SO1 and to provide these technology independentopen application signals to one or more of the terminal applicationmeans APP1, APP2, APP3 and APP4. Further more the terminal capabilityserver CS is comprised to translate technology independent openapplication signals e.g. SO2 received from one of the terminalapplications means APP1, APP2, APP3 and APP4 into technology dependentapplication signals e.g. S2 and to provide these technology dependentapplication signals to one or more of the terminal capabilities CAP1,CAP2, CAP3 and CAP4. Since the terminal capability server CS is acentralized block it is preferred to show this translation in bothdirections by means of the two double arrows in the FIGURE. Thetechnology independent open application signals are called predefinedapplication open signals e.g. SO1 and SO2. It has to be remarked thatthe predefined terminal application open signals are predefinedaccording to a cooperation between different manufacturers of differenttype of terminals, whereby functionality such as basic terminalfunctions but also functions regarding the terminal capabilities aredetermined and defined in a uniform way. The determined functions aretranslated into these predefined application open signals and viceversa.

Furthermore, for this particular embodiment it is preferred to furtherdetermine the predefined application open signals in accordance with theinformation of a predefined network open service architecture interfaceaccording to the above mentioned information of 3GPP. However, it has tobe remarked that this accordance is elementary for the presentinvention. This will become more clearly in a further paragraph.

A first example that will be described to explain the principle workingand the advantages of the present invention concerns an applicationbased on a call forwarding application. Presume that the terminalcapability CAP1 is a wireless telephone application WTA clientcapability that supports the terminal application app1 i.e. a wirelesstelephone application WTA. A first manufacturer develops the WTAterminal capability and also the WTA application. Presume that theterminal capability CAP2 is a short message terminal capability SMS thatis developed by a second manufacturer. The terminal application meansAPP1 comprises in this way a call forwarding application app1. Thismeans that the user is enabled to install its own call forwardingpreferences and to forward received communications to another e.g.telephone number. Presume that a third party service provider wants todevelop an application that provides a service similar to the callforwarding application but furthermore wants to provide to its userclients the extra service of automatically generating a short message toa predefined identification number. According to prior art terminalsthis third party service provider needs to contact the firstmanufacturer and the second manufacturer to gather the knowledge of theunderlying technology for the terminal capabilities CAP1 and CAP2.However, according to the present invention the terminal T comprises thecapability server CS to translate the technology dependent applicationsignals such as S1 into predefined application open signals such as SO1.In this way, the third party service provider is enabled to develop the‘call forwarding with short message application’ e.g. app2 without priorknowledge of the technology used by the first manufactures of the WTAterminal capability and the second manufacturer of the SMS terminalcapability.

Even more, when the third party service provider wants to offer thisservice to a second user that uses a second terminal (not shown) withits installed WTA and SMS terminal capabilities of some othermanufacturers, no redesign of the application is required as long thatthe terminal comprises a terminal capability server CS according to thepresent invention.

A second example that will be described to explain a further advantageof the present invention concerns the application on the USIM i.e. app3and app4. Presume that the application app3 on the terminal applicationmeans APP3 provides a service to the user that relates to its bankingaccount i.e. its overall expenses over a predetermined period. Theservice provider of the bank provides at regular time moments by meansof a short message the expenses made during the actual month. Theinformation is also stored in the application means APP3 for eventuallater inquiry. Furthermore, presume that the application app4 on theterminal application means APP4 provides a service to the user thatrelates to its expenses at its food store over a predetermined period.The preferred service provider of the food store keeps track of theexpenses of the clients which are desiring such a service andfurthermore provides on a regular base the expenses made in the foodstore during the actual month. The information is also stored in theapplication means APP4 for eventual later inquiry. Although that bothapplications are located at the USIM and that both application meansAPP3 and APP4 are interacting with the terminal capability CAP3 on theUSIM, according to prior art situations, both applications app3 and app4being developed by different service providers are not aware of eachother and the information concerning the other application. However, dueto the presence of the terminal capability server CS according to thepresent invention and in particular that part of the terminal capabilityserver for the USIM related terminal capabilities CAP3, the terminalapplication means APP3 and APP4 are interacting with capability CAP3according to a uniform way that is transparent to the user. Hereby it isenabled to provide information from one USIM application to the otherUSIM application. Even a service provider that is different from thebank service provider and the food store service provider is enabled todevelop in a technology independent way a further application that e.g.calculates the percentage of the food store expenses versus the overallexpenses during the actual month (not shown).

Furthermore, the extra application can be improved by automaticallysending a short message to a second user of the identical bankingaccount in order to give this second user a warning when a predefinedamount of expenses is reached by one or the other application. In theevent when terminal capability CAP4 is a SAT functional block, uponrequest of the USIM, CAP4 commands the short message terminal capabilitymeans e.g. CAP 2 to generate automatically a short message towards thesecond user.

Even more, the application is further developed to additionally transmita detailed list of the expenses, but only in the event when this seconduser is actually using a terminal with high display capabilities.Therefore, it is preferred to interrogate first, according to the extraapplication, the actual user profile of this second user by interactingwith the home network capabilities. When, however this user profilenetwork application is managed by a third party service provider outsidethe core network, it is necessary to inquiry this third party serviceprovider and to known its identification references. Therefore thepredefined application open signals are defined in accordance with apredefined network open service architecture information whereby e.g.this information can be requested to the network according to astandardized way.

The capabilities of the actual terminal (not shown) in use by the seconduser can be requested also directly to this terminal i.e. via thevirtual home identification of the second user. Due to the presence of acapability server CS at this actual terminal of the second user thecapabilities of this terminal are requested to the terminal directly ina way that is totally transparent for the second user himself.

The third example concerns a terminal application app1 i.e. a WTAapplication on terminal application means APP1 that provides the serviceof listening to voice messages. It explains however the interaction of aterminal according to the present invention with a network that supportsopen service architecture.

The terminal application means APP1 interacts with the terminalcapability CAP1 i.e. a WTA client in order to execute the ‘voice messageapplication’. Presume that a third party service provider 3rdSP offersthe application to the network of keeping track and storing voicemessages. Herewith the 3rd service provider 3rdSP provides also theterminal application for the end-users of providing the voice messagesupon request of the user. Furthermore, this 3rd party service providerwants to offer an extra service towards its users that are roaming in avisited network VN with a Camel version 1 VS1 that does not supportinteraction with a user using announcement voice prompting andinformation collection via in-band interaction. The extra serviceconcerns the translation of the voice message into text TXT and thetransmission of this text TXT message that is indeed supported by theCamel version 1 VS1. Now, when a user of the terminal T is roaming in avisited network VN and desires to listen to its voice messages, the userselects on the terminal the voice mail application app1. Furthermore,when the user wants to listen to one of its received voice messages, theapplication app1 interrogates, via the terminal capability server CS andunder the support of the terminal capability CAP1 the installed Camelversion VS of the visited network VN. This is shown with the requestmessage Req(VS). Due to the accordance of the predefined applicationopen signals, used by the terminal capability server CS, with theinformation of the 3GPP network open service architecture, the terminalis enabled to request the network for its Camel version. The visitednetwork VN reacts by providing to the terminal is Camel version VS1,which is however too low and not adapted to request the 3rd serviceprovider 3rdSP for the voice message. Upon reception of the Camelversion VS1 by the terminal application means APP1, via the terminalcapability CAP1 and the terminal capability server CS, the applicationapp1 is further executed by the terminal application means APP1. In theevent when the Camel version should have been a higher version e.g.Version 2 or Version 3, the terminal T could have asked, via the mobilenetwork to the 3rd party service provider 3rd SP for transmission of thevoice message. This is shown with a dotted line Req(V). However, due tothe lower version V1, the application app1 requests for texttransmission via the terminal capability server CS and the short messageterminal capability CAP2, from the terminal T, via the mobile shortmessage service functionality SMS and the short message service—networkservice capability server SMS-SCS to the third party service provider3rdSP. This is shown with Req(TXT). Upon reception of this request the3rdSP transforms the voice message into texts and transmits the text TXTto the terminal T via the mobile switching center MSC.

While the principles of the invention have been described above inconnection with specific apparatus, it is to be clearly understood thatthis description is made only by way of example and not as a limitationon the scope of the invention, as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A terminal for use in a communication network,said terminal comprising a plurality of terminal capability functions torealize a plurality of terminal capability features and coupled theretoa terminal application execution apparatus to interact with one or moreof said plurality of terminal capability functions and to executethereby a terminal application, characterized in that said terminalfurther comprises at least one terminal capability server coupledbetween said terminal application execution apparatus and to at leastone of said plurality of terminal capability functions, said terminalcapability server translating a first application signal received fromsaid at least one of said plurality of terminal capability functionsinto a first predefined application open signal and providing said firstpredefined application open signal to said terminal applicationexecution apparatus and also translating a second predefined applicationopen signal received from said terminal application execution apparatusinto a second application signal and providing said second applicationsignal to said at least one of said plurality of terminal capabilityfunctions, said first predefined application open signal and said secondpredefined application open signal being independent of an underlyingtechnology of said plurality of terminal capability function.
 2. Theterminal according to claim 1, characterized in that said firstpredefined application open signal and said second predefinedapplication open signal are defined in correspondence to a predefinednetwork open service architecture interface information.
 3. The terminalaccording to claim 1, characterized in that at least two of saidplurality of terminal capability functions are interacting with eachother by means of capability signals comprising information inaccordance with any one of said first predefined application open signaland said second predefined application open signal and a predefinednetwork open service architecture interface information.
 4. A terminalapplication to be executed by a terminal application execution apparatusof a terminal according to claim 1, characterized in that said terminalapplication is adapted to be executed according to received andtransmitted open signals similar to any one of said first predefinedapplication open signal and said second predefined application opensignal and being independent of an underlying terminal technology ofsaid plurality of terminal capability functions.
 5. The terminalapplication according to claim 4, characterized in that said terminalapplication comprises data in correspondence to a predefined networkopen service architecture interface.
 6. A carrier for a terminalapplication, characterized in that said carrier is adapted to carry aterminal application according to claim
 4. 7. A method to execute aterminal application by a terminal comprising the step of realizing aplurality of terminal capability features by a plurality of terminalcapability functions, and interacting by a terminal applicationexecution apparatus with at least one of said plurality of terminalcapability functions, and thereby executing by said terminal applicationexecution apparatus a terminal application, characterized in that saidmethod further comprises the steps of by at least one terminalcapability server: translating a first application signal received fromsaid at least one of said plurality of terminal capability functionsinto a first predefined application open signal, providing said firstpredefined application open signal to said terminal applicationexecution apparatus, translating a second predefined application opensignal received from said terminal application execution apparatus intoa second application signal, and providing said second applicationsignal to said at least one of said plurality of terminal capabilityfunctions; said first predefined application open signal and said secondpredefined application open signal being independent of an underlyingtechnology of said plurality of terminal capability functions.
 8. Acommunication network comprising at least one of a terminal according toclaim 1, a terminal application to be executed by said terminalapplication execution apparatus, wherein said terminal application isadapted to be executed according to received and transmitted opensignals similar to any one of said first predefined application opensignal and said second predefined application open signal and beingindependent of an underlying terminal technology of said plurality ofterminal capability functions, and a carrier for carrying said terminalapplication.